Slave Traders
by Alyss Mainwaring
Summary: Cannon however changes what everyone wants to be changed and fixes it without ruining... much... Will and Maddie are helping another ranger George to rescue some slaves and Will gets something he didn't know was out there.


_I opened up Pandora and a song came on. This is what came out of it…_

 **The sun, it rises slowly as you walk  
Away from all the fears  
And all the faults you've left behind**

 **Now let me at the truth**  
 **Which will refresh my broken mind**

 **So tie me to a post and block my ears**  
 **I can see widows and orphans through my tears**  
 **I know my call despite my faults**  
 **And despite my growing fears**

 **But I will hold on hope**  
 **And I won't let you choke**  
 **On the noose around your neck**

 **And I'll find strength in pain**

 **'Cause I need freedom now**  
 **And I need to know how**  
 **To live my life as it's meant to be**

 **And I will hold on hope**  
 **And I won't let you choke**  
 **On the noose around your neck**

 **And I'll find strength in pain**  
 **And I will change my ways**  
 **I'll know my name as it's called again**

* * *

Will jumped as his stomach made a noise whilst he was lying in the grass spying on a town. He mentally attempted to shut it up, involving a strange face according to the mirth on Maddie's next to him. He gave her a glare and turned to face the front again, the third Ranger to his right not having moved at all. The three of them were on a stake out at the quiet town of Searoost where there had been reported slave activity.

The town itself was a small affair, just large enough to support itself without having to rely too heavily upon any other. It was conveniently located for crime, falling just outside the boarders of the local fiefs. There were a few farmers, a few carpenters, a blacksmith and a tannery. It didn't even have an established inn. There was, however, a place that would have been the supplier of alcohol, presumably making their own as in the time that Will had been around there had been no trade between them and other towns, just the slave traders.

Two days ago the Rangers had managed to eavesdrop information about the current salve ring that was being set up. A ship full of female slaves, the Rangers weren't certain as to the number this equated to, would arrive on this day and all of those there would be taken to a holding cell under the headman's house. From there they would be taken out depending on the job they were given. The reason why the town needed so few farmers, or to rely on other towns, was this outsourcing of jobs.

"This is disgusting," Ranger George muttered. Will glared at him sharply.

"I don't care your opinion of it, you will keep it to yourself until a more appropriate time!" he snapped back under his breath before turning to face the front again.

"I know that we are doing this stake out, but why don't we just rescue them on the way?"

"You did come up with this plan…" Will muttered, beginning to get more and more ticked. The last few days had been hard as their supply of coffee had ran out and George was one of the few Rangers who didn't actually drink the stuff. He was also, apparently, unable to cook without burning something. Perhaps Will was being a little too harsh there. George was able to cook to the standards of the apprentice tests, which he had passed only five months earlier.

One riot, one Ranger… unless he was George, Will thought bitterly then caught himself. It was the anniversary of Alyss' death and instead of him being somewhere attempting to drown his sorrows and being stopped by Halt and Maddie, he was helping a ranger with less sense than Maddie before he snapped her out of her selfish nature.

"What do you plan on doing next?" Will guided the Ranger.

"I plan on rescuing the people."

"Aside from the obvious. How are you going to complete that?"

"By bashing the shit out of everyone who stands in my road." At this even Maddie was forced to snicker before stopping suddenly.

"There they are," she hissed.

As Will looked he was able to make out the familiar chilling sight of a string of slaves. George cursed the slavers and Will echoed his statement internally. There appeared to be approximately thirty of them all up, all between their early twenties to middle aged.

Slowly he stood up and lit a fire arrow according to the earlier agreed upon plan. He was going to draw most of the people away whilst George fought the guards of the slaves and Maddie worked on freeing them, that way the more experiences had the more dangerous aspects of the plan that was bound to go wrong.

Half an hour later there was a small string of corpses along the road Will had taken in his distraction effort. Maddie had gotten all of the slave collars off and was leading people into the open. George was attempting to find the strikers he had used to knock someone's skull in.

"Is there a person you all trust to do the talking for you?" George finally asked, giving up and resolving to make up an epic tale to explain how he lost the valuable piece of equipment.

There was a pause within the group. All of them had been slaves for at least a year and a half, and had felt some form of a male oppression during that time. This meant that now they were surrounded by Rangers, who were typically male, they were petrified of what was going to happen to them. Suddenly one woman motioned towards the woman in the middle of their group and the rest soon nodded, thankful it wasn't them. The woman nominated noticed that she was now their spokesperson but did nothing to acknowledge it aside from a small nod of the head.

"It's OK. You are all safe now. We are going to help you find your family, the Ranger said, not unkindly, reading the attitude of the groups chosen spokesperson.

"Perhaps she is afraid of Rangers…" one of the women stated. Off in the corner, underneath his hood, Will smirked. It was apparent that that lady wasn't afraid at all, perhaps she would have been a better spokesperson.

"I understand that I am just a nameless Ranger, but perhaps if I told you that the shorter Ranger over there was Will Treaty would you feel safer?"

All of the rest of the group nodded except for Alyss. She had been hoping that it wasn't him but there were small signs. Signs no one else would know to look for except perhaps Halt. The way he stood, Tug and Sable off in corner, the bottom of his cloak frayed, from where it was nearly constantly dragging against the ground.

Eventually Alyss nodded, still looking down and hiding her face. The questions were only just starting; she knew because he would have to do through the same procedure as the one she had learnt during her apprenticeship.

Step one: Ask about the condition of the person/people. Get them to safety before concentrating on their health more. This changes when they are too ill or injured however and so Alyss typically left the walking aspect to Will, and he left it to her to encourage the people to continue walking.

"Is anyone not able to walk?"

"No. We are all capable of walking although probably not for a long time," Alyss said. She attempted to keep it as quiet as possible so that Will didn't hear.

This wasn't to be. Will off in the distance heard and she was able to see his body tense, unwillingly she felt hers do the same.

Will examined the woman who had just spoken. So far they hadn't gotten the names of anyone here, and yet she looked oddly familiar. His heart was tugging painfully again, something that had only died a little since taking on (and accepting) Maddie.

Her hair. It was the same as it always was; a pale blond that always draped elegantly behind her. It fell to her elbows and he knew it to be a particular vanity of hers. He was still captivated it, even after believing her to be gone, forever out of reach. He took a double take and realised it wasn't the same. It was dirty and matted and tangled. Normally she took such good care of it that this was a shock, but it was still her and nothing was going to take that away from him again.

Slowly and hesitantly Alyss raised her head to look Will in the eyes, ignoring George and Maddie for the time being. Will was stuck, unable to look away. The fear, and yet love was plainly visible and his let his fill with relief and love back. He walked forwards as though he was talking to a skittish horse and stopped in front of her, unable to see the other occupants of her captivity next to her.

"You continue to grow even more beautiful every day," he whispered softly, just for her. He could see the tears that had built of behind her eyes and yet refused to fall. Gently he reached up and placed his hand on her soft cheek. Alyss lent into it more and closed her eyes in relief. She could go home.

* * *

 **If my writing is shitty I apologise. I have been dying to write this or another idea that hasn't made it out of the works yet and have just been snowed under in assignments. As in two a day nearly for such a long time. That and I have to call support for my new laptop often as the stupid thing doesn't work. It was "fixed" when I called support last and well now I am just going to take it back to the store I bought it from as it runs slowly and NOTHING works! Whatever they did last means that nothing works on the laptop either. I was doing an assignment and Adobe crashed every time I changed pdfs (and there are about 20 I was cross referencing) and chrome just shat itself. Constantly. Then the laptop refused to connect to the Internet. AND THEN the screen didn't light up at all! And now, a few days after writing this, I can honestly tell you that my laptop is stupid and will be thrown against a wall fairly soon. It doesn't work and likes giving me "catastrophic" errors. I'm not joking. That was the word it gave me.**

 ***sigh***


End file.
